In a hushed Florida courtroom years ago, a trembling 14-year-old girl recounted how Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet whisked her to his palm-fringed island paradise—only to trap her in a nightmare of repeated sexual abuse disguised as luxury.T

Beneath the veneer of luxury private islands, opulent mansions, and flights aboard the infamous “Lolita Express,” Jeffrey Epstein orchestrated a meticulously constructed sex trafficking empire that exploited dozens of underage girls, allegedly for the gratification of himself and powerful global elites.

Epstein, a financier with mysterious wealth, owned Little St. James in the U.S. Virgin Islands—nicknamed “Pedophile Island”—where prosecutors alleged he trafficked and abused young women and girls as young as 14. Victims described being lured with promises of money or opportunities, only to be groomed and assaulted at his properties in New York, Florida, New Mexico, and the Caribbean. His longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking minors, sentenced to 20 years for recruiting and grooming victims from 1994 to 2004.

The operation relied on a pyramid scheme: Epstein paid victims hundreds of dollars for “massages” that escalated to sexual abuse, then incentivized them to recruit friends, creating a vast network of underage girls. Federal indictments charged him with exploiting dozens, though victim accounts suggest hundreds over decades.

Epstein’s private Boeing 727 jet ferried high-profile passengers—including former presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, and others—to exotic destinations, fueling speculation about complicity, though many denied knowledge of crimes.